Three years ago, the Honolulu Police Department encrypted its radio dispatch communications, and local media outlets lost access to that information.
The Honolulu City Council is considering a measure to require the department to make it available again to professional news organizations.
Acting Police Chief Rade Vanic was opposed to the measure because of privacy concerns.
“Our dispatch radio often includes highly sensitive personal information that includes names, home addresses, medical conditions and criminal histories,” he said.
“Across the nation, most law enforcement agencies have moved to encrypted radios, as have we. Why? Because real-time audio contains constant streams of confidential information, criminal justice Information and personally identifiable information. Media members aren't vetted to access this data, and quite frankly, they shouldn't have to be.”
But representatives from local news organizations such as KITV4, KHON2 and Hawaii News Now say the media organizations follow a code of ethics.
“We won't report anything that isn't vetted and verified. We need to go to the story, get the correct information out quickly and responsibly,” said Hawaii News Now News Director Matt Piacente.
“With scanner access, our job in protecting the public proves 10-fold. The dispatch channel is just the first step in our process as journalists in delivering accurate and vital information. We're not here to be an opponent of the police department. We're here to help in getting their information out in a responsible way.”
News outlets emphasized that it has been difficult to get real-time information from the department. Some incidents, like the recent Māʻili fire evacuation, were also not included in the released media log.
“We do get the information from other sources, but it was so much better when we had access to the police scanner, because it was in real time,” said KHON2 General Manager Kristina Lockwood.
“It's been very challenging to get the information, so we just want more info. We want to collaborate. We want to be a better partner with HPD and really share information with the community to protect and serve the people. I will also say, prior to us losing the police scanners, we had never had any issues. We never released any information that was inappropriate.”
Vanic said HPD is trying to do more to communicate with the media and the public, such as by hiring a communications director, increasing social media posts, and planning to launch a media portal on their website that will include 24-hour calls for service data.
Council Chair Tommy Waters urged members to vote in favor of the bill because of the lack of communication from HPD in the past.
“It's like deja vu. We were here a few years ago, and we heard kind of the same thing from the police department, and then we got a new chief, and everything kind of fell to the wayside,” he said.
“I do want to point out, though, there is a safeguard … We're not talking about unfettered access to the public. The safeguard is that it’s to organizations that have a verifiable track record of professional journalism, including the employment of full-time editorial staff, who adhere to publicly posted code of journalistic ethics with a history of continuous publication or broadcast for at least 10 years.”
Honolulu is not the first area to grapple with this issue. The New York State Legislature just passed a bill this month that would require media access to encrypted police radio.
The Public Safety Committee advanced the measure on Thursday. It will next be heard by the full council.
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